The present disclosure relates to welding. More particularly, it relates to a method of joining two components using a welding process wherein at least one of the components comprises a brass alloy.
The joining of components using welding is generally known. However, the welding of brass proves problematic due to the zinc that is contained therein, which vaporizes during the welding process. Because explosive zinc vaporizations continuously occur throughout the process, high-quality welds of brass components can in particular only be realized with great difficulty using conventional arc welding processes. The same applies to the laser welding of brass. Namely, with a focused laser beam, a large portion of the zinc vaporizes in the melt so that a deep cut arises in the weld. If work is in contrast carried out using a defocused laser beam, the weld widens and the explosive zinc vaporizations are reduced; but at the same time, the welding depth is also reduced to only a few tenths of a millimeter. There is yet another difficulty in that that the laser radiation is only slightly absorbed by brass under certain circumstances. As a result, welding brass can require a considerably higher laser performance than is required when, for example, welding steel. Given these shortcomings, there is a need in the art for an improved method of welding brass.